Page 55

Chapter thirty-nine

“Is your Odalik well, my lord?” Thadlia asked.

Aidan had barely stepped out of the elevator at Cormac’s place, making his way through the crowd of waiting Vampires. For the entirety of their descent, Cormac had been prattling away beside him and Aidan hadn’t heard a damned word.

He’d been too busy focusing on Rae moving about above them, too busy thinking about the look on her face as the elevator doors closed. Something that looked too much like an apology.

Your Odalik . His wife. But she was more than that.

Something dormant in him had awoken when Rae had returned his magic, something that had roared to life when he’d fed from her.

The taste of her still lingered. The feel of her body beneath him, around him.

It had settled some primal part of him to have her like that.

Only he didn’t. Have her. No matter how much he wanted to claim her, mark her, and all the other absurdly primitive thoughts that had run through his head since she’d left his bed.

Despite her hard exterior, her strength, beneath it all, she was afraid.

Afraid of… caring too much. Letting others care for her.

It’s easier this way , Aidan could almost hear her say.

“She’s up top with the survivors,” Aidan said, not looking in Thadlia’s direction, “as I’m sure you’re well aware.”

He didn’t have time for Thadlia’s antics.

Her Provident abilities were strong enough that she’d have felt Rae’s presence when they arrived if she was looking for it.

It was enough to remind him he didn’t need to be watching Rae’s every move.

Enough to squash out his own echoing thought of you know why , as Malik and Karina greeted him.

The memory of how beautiful she’d looked beneath him played on repeat, the way her hair had fanned out around her, her chest heaving, her heart racing beneath his palm.

How it had snapped something inside of him, something he should have fucking known sooner.

Don’t ask me to stay , she’d said. But he couldn’t let her go.

Not without exploring this thing between them.

Not without hearing her side; that he suspected she knew.

New faces stood amongst old ones. There had been casualties at the raid, and as Vampires stepped up to introduce themselves, part of him understood why Rae had attempted what she had.

Nullifying the Orders’ magic would have certainly prevented years of this bullshit, but a different kind of fight was coming to them now.

Aidan addressed his council, starting with acknowledging their losses during the raid. All of the houses had lost someone. And though he hated his kind, he hoped the faces standing before him had a chance to prove him otherwise.

He’d considered telling them about his heritage, his silver flame, but decided against it.

Now was not the time to divide them with his half-breed legacy.

Many had respected his uncle, and change took time.

Instead, he informed them about Aera’s work with the Liberalist Fae.

About Baxter and the hybrids, filling in gaps from what they hadn’t been able to glean from the raid.

“Where did the Thaumas blood come from?” Malik asked.

“We don’t know. Only that they’re going to use it to pull the strings in the city.

To stop the flow of resources, to push up prices and make things very difficult for those of us that remain,” Aidan explained.

Rae had tried to track Baxter with the ring he’d taken from Silver Star, but she hadn’t been successful. Baelin hadn’t been either.

Questions erupted from the council members, and Aidan answered them all as best he could, even the ones that grated on his last nerve—Vampires and their posturing—but he needed numbers, needed an army, if it came to it.

It was almost dawn when they’d finished. Half the council, the members eager to show their dedication to their new roles, had been pitching ideas, and given the amount of changes in the last few weeks, Aidan had permitted it.

He’d told them all as much as he was willing to share, but of Maddock’s visit, he’d said nothing.

Anything that would jeopardise what he’d built with the Royalist Fae wasn’t open for discussion.

Anything that would jeopardise Rae’s safety wasn’t either, and it was only a matter of time before Maddock discovered her in Demesia.

Before he discovered where she’d been spending her time.

The Royalists had been considering an alliance with the Witches for years, despite Rae’s disappearance, but if word broke out that Maddock had any part in removing Seylan from the throne, it would all grind to a halt.

If they knew Aidan’s part in it… he would accept whatever consequences fell upon him.

But Rae… if she knew the truth? Whatever fragile thing they held between them would crumble.

The thought was like poison settling in his veins.

He reached out for the Witch, expecting to feel her amongst the survivors, but she wasn’t with them. Rae, he called out, brushing Thadlia aside and making his way for the elevator. The Vampire had tried to speak with him all night, but Aidan wasn’t interested.

No answer from Rae.

“Baelin.” He reached out to his Ascendant next, cursing whatever it was in Cormac’s basement interfering with the earpieces when no answer came, and ignored the first flare of panic spreading beneath his ribs.

Baelin , he tried again, this time with his Provident abilities, pulling his PAD from his pocket as Orion stepped into the elevator beside him. Where is she? he asked his Ascendant.

The climb seemed to take three times longer than usual, every second stretching on for far too long.

Rae. Aidan found her—like she was buried under hundreds of wards, but still, he felt her.

Below ground. At least a dozen blocks away or more, on the move.

Apprehension clawed at him. What are you up to, Witch?

No answer, and then— Trying to fix what’s broken, Vampire , came her reply, so quietly he barely heard it.

The scar over his heart ached, and Aidan tightened his grip on his PAD as he waited for Baelin’s reply. Some things are better left that way, he told Rae.

I can’t locate her, Baelin’s message read.

I’ve found her , Aidan told him.

No reply from Rae, and that kernel of apprehension gave way to uneasiness.

To concern. He dragged a hand through his hair, earning him a sideways glance from Orion.

The elevator groaned as it slowed. The doors opened and Reed already stood waiting for them, another earpiece in his hands.

Aidan took it, giving him and Orion silent, clipped commands to find her, trying to keep a lid on his unease.

Dawn was approaching, and he couldn’t risk Orion out in the morning sunlight.

Wherever Rae was, she was already far away, and he didn’t know whether to laugh at her astuteness or tear through the first fucking thing he came into contact with.

Her signature felt faint, but then—Aidan paused, reaching for the minds of those around him and feeling a vibration in his magic that had no right being there.

“There are reports of disruption across the city,” Baelin said in his ear as Scarlett caught his eye.

Aidan reached further, to the city beyond, understanding smacking him square in the face when he felt nothing, the realisation that he could have prevented this—could have at least fucking tried to —slashing through him.

“The roads are gridlocked; it’s chaos out there,” Baelin went on.

Scarlett gave a tight smile, and Aidan knew she was in on it. Wherever Rae was. But—chaos?

“What is? I’ve got a basement full of Vampires waiting to get the fuck out of here, Baelin.” Cormac’s place wasn’t big enough for a garage, and in order not to draw too much attention to the location, the council and their Ascendants’ vehicles were parked halfway across the district.

“Rutoks,” Baelin told him as Aidan stepped out into what remained of the night, hundreds of tiny creatures racing past the doorway. “Every damn rutok kennel has been emptied. They’re all over the city.”

Aidan couldn’t help the laugh that escaped him, adding to the hysteria building in his chest. “One last fuck you .”

“What?”

“Rae,” Aidan murmured, watching the freed animals clambering over cars.

He twisted the ring over his thumb as he took in the sight.

The Witch had a flair for being creative, and this stunt was no exception.

Transport across the entire city would have ground to a halt.

“She’s gone,” he tacked on, a roughness to his voice that hadn’t been there before.

“I don’t—” Baelin stammered, and Aidan knew his Ascendant was searching screens, tapping Rae’s PAD, a dozen different tasks at once.

“The service tunnels,” Aidan said as he made his way to his car, frowning when he realised he couldn’t feel the rutoks scurrying around him, couldn’t feel Orion inside the warehouse, or any of the others. “Isn’t this meant to be your area of expertise?”

“You know damned well there’s too many of them for me to control. Reed can follow you,” Baelin said in his earpiece when he must have heard Aidan’s car door slam shut. The Fae was the only team member who could follow safely.

Aidan’s fingers tightened over the steering wheel as he braced himself for what he should have known was coming, and he was a damned fool for hoping she’d change her mind.

A damned fool for not asking her to stay.

“She’s gone, Baelin.” It would take all day to get out of the city, and by then she’d be too far away for him to track her. Even now, her signature was weak.

“What are you up to, Rae?” he muttered as three rutoks tumbled over his windscreen.

To fix what’s broken , she’d said. Returning to her people?

To her position as heir? To her betrothal?

The thought had him wanting to snuff out every Vampire in Cormac’s basement just to silence the crescendo building in his head.

He stepped out of the car, slamming the door harder than necessary, his heart in his fucking throat. “Baelin, I need a motorbike.”

He took a single step towards the warehouse before a surge of magic hit him, the scar over his chest aching so acutely it stole his breath.

He staggered back against the car, the silence in his head louder than anything he’d ever experienced.

Rae. Her spell. Just as jarring and unsettling as it had been fifteen years before when her mother had torn his magic from him.

Like a web over the whole city , Rae had said.

Aidan’s hand fisted in his shirt at the absence of it, the echo of pain where it should have been as he almost choked at the sensation, one hand reaching out to brace himself against his car.

And this time it wasn’t just his Fae magic, his silver flame, but his Provident abilities too.

She’d taken all of it. His bones felt hollow and empty, each breath like shards of glass across his lungs.

“What was that?” Baelin asked in his earpiece, his voice laced with pain.

Aidan swallowed down the acid taste coating his tongue.

“She’s taken out the entire city.” He shouldn’t have been surprised, but disappointment sliced through him regardless.

“Her magic. It’s everywhere,” he murmured.

“She’s nullified every Order across Demesia.

” So he couldn’t follow her; so she could buy herself time to flee.

Without his Provident abilities, Aidan was blind.

She’d caused a disruption big enough to grind the city to a halt without harming a single citizen, freed the damned rutoks at the same time, all so she could evade him.

Anger sparked through him, anger and concern all for the damned Witch, and a dozen other things he’d been too fucking stupid to name, twisting in his gut.

But if her spell had also worked on the hybrids, that changed things.

Provided Aidan with an opportunity and gave the city an advantage in this war its citizens had no say in becoming a part of.

And if there was any chance Rae’s spell could be traced back to her, she’d just put a target on her back. A giant one.

“Fuck,” Aidan breathed, slamming his fist against the roof of his car hard enough to leave a dent as Reed rounded his own vehicle to join him. Had she just removed his ability to shift too? What about those who were in their Fae form when her spell hit?

“Why would she do this?” Reed asked, a hand pressed to his chest. It had affected him too. Affected every gods-damned Order in the city.

“Do what, Aidan?” Baelin snapped in his ear. “Tell me Rae hasn’t done what I think she has?” His Ascendant’s voice grew distant as if he’d pulled his earpiece out, his tone laced with panic as he called out for Quinn.

A Vampire was the reason for everything I do. Everything I’ve done. The reason my mother treated me like vermin , she’d told Aidan that first day in the manor as husband and wife.

Because she’s afraid, he wanted to tell the Fae beside him.

Because she’d suffered. Because she’s trying to fight back, to give us an even footing.

Because she’s Rae. But Aidan didn’t say any of that as he dragged both hands through his hair, glaring at the fucking rutoks as they skittered over everything.

Baelin cursed in his earpiece as his Ascendant spoke to Quinn and received no response.

The scar over his heart burned, the tightness spreading across his chest, but he knew this time it had nothing to do with the loss of his magic.

“Fuck,” Aidan barked again, already calculating distances and possible locations she could be heading.

A million different scenarios ran through his head at what she was going to do next.

And there were a hundred different places she could be hiding, Orders that would trace this back to her, hunt her down. Baxter amongst them.

Aidan slammed his fist against the car again at the thought. It didn’t matter. He’d kill every last one of them who laid a finger on her. Tear apart the whole damn city if he had to.

She’d run. His wife.

His mate.

His.

And Aidan was going to find her.